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Alfred W. McCoy

China
The New Eurasian Wars on our Endangered Planet

The New Eurasian Wars on our Endangered Planet

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Just as the relentless grinding of the earth’s tectonic plates produces earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, so the endless superpower struggle for dominance over Eurasia is fraught with tensions and armed conflict. Beneath the visible outbreak of war in Ukraine and the U.S.-Chinese naval standoff in the South China Sea, there is […]

China
China is Rising as a Superpower by vastly Expanding Planet-Wrecking Fossil Fuels

China is Rising as a Superpower by vastly Expanding Planet-Wrecking Fossil Fuels

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Consider us at the edge of the sort of epochal change not seen for centuries, even millennia. By the middle of this century, we will be living under such radically altered circumstances that the present decade, the 2020s, will undoubtedly seem like another era entirely, akin perhaps to the Middle Ages. […]

Central Asia
Eurasia’s Ring of Fire:  The Epic Struggle over the Epicenter of U.S. Global Power

Eurasia’s Ring of Fire: The Epic Struggle over the Epicenter of U.S. Global Power

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Throughout 2021, Americans were absorbed in arguments over mask mandates, school closings, and the meaning of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Meanwhile, geopolitical hot spots were erupting across Eurasia, forming a veritable ring of fire around that vast land mass. Let’s circle that continent to visit just a few […]

Climate Crisis
A Rise of average world Temperatures by 2.3° C. (4.2° F.)  will degrade the quality of life in every country on Earth

A Rise of average world Temperatures by 2.3° C. (4.2° F.) will degrade the quality of life in every country on Earth

Alfred W. McCoy

By Alfred McCoy | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – When midnight strikes on New Year’s Day of 2050, there will be little cause for celebration. There will, of course, be the usual toasts with fine wines in the climate-controlled compounds of the wealthy few. But for most of humanity, it’ll just be another day of adversity […]

China
Ours won’t be the new American Century or the Chinese Century but that of Catastrophic Climate Change

Ours won’t be the new American Century or the Chinese Century but that of Catastrophic Climate Change

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com) – When the leaders of more than 100 nations gathered in Glasgow for the U.N. climate conference last week, there was much discussion about the disastrous effect of climate change on the global environment. There was, however, little awareness of its likely political impact on the current world order that made such an […]

Authoritarianism
Trump was aping Third World Dictators when he Tried to make his Coup

Trump was aping Third World Dictators when he Tried to make his Coup

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com) – As an eyewitness, I can recall the events of January 6th in Washington as if they were yesterday. The crowds of angry loyalists storming the building while overwhelmed security guards gave way. The slavishly loyal vice-president who would, the president hoped, restore him to power. The crush of media that seemed confused, […]

Afghanistan
The Winner in Afghanistan: China

The Winner in Afghanistan: China

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com) – The collapse of the American project in Afghanistan may fade fast from the news here, but don’t be fooled. It couldn’t be more significant in ways few in this country can even begin to grasp. “Remember, this is not Saigon,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a television audience on August 15th, […]

Drugs
Was 'the War on Drugs' always a White Nationalist Project?

Was ‘the War on Drugs’ always a White Nationalist Project?

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Fifty years ago, on June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon stood before the White House press corps, staffers at his side, to announce “a new, all-out offensive” against drug abuse, which he denounced as “America’s public enemy number one.” He called on Congress to contribute $350 million for a worldwide attack […]

Afghanistan
Can Biden’s Withdrawal from Afghanistan escape the Shadow of Saigon?

Can Biden’s Withdrawal from Afghanistan escape the Shadow of Saigon?

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com) – Many of us have had a recurring nightmare. You know the one. In a fog between sleeping and waking, you’re trying desperately to escape from something awful, some looming threat, but you feel paralyzed. Then, with great relief, you suddenly wake up, covered in sweat. The next night, or the next week, […]

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